And disappointing...

[shivver]

Episode two. It wasn't bad - it wasn't nearly the letdown that "Death in Heaven" was after "Dark Waters".


The intro was a lot of fun. I loved how Missy explained that it didn't matter - to her or the story - which Doctor was in the precarious situation. Of course, they had to do that so that no one important throughout the episode (or the previous episode) could possibly be actually killed by a Dalek blast. Now or forever, really - if the Doctor has a device which charges off the Dalek blasts and renders them useless, why doesn't he carry it with him always?

I again enjoyed the Master quite a bit, because again, she's showing the intelligence she's always had. And, of course, some of that insanity, too.

The discussion between the Doctor and Davros was fantastic, finally showing some depth to Davros' character and exploring concepts of friends and enemies and good and evil - until Davros asks, "Am I a good man?" I'm sorry, but that call back to Series 8 was a very clumsy parallel to the Doctor, just as bad as the monologue about the dinosaur, the monologue about the robot, and the mirror-finish serving tray in "Deep Breath". It wasn't good then, and it isn't good now. With deft writing, the audience is capable of making the parallels on their own; when you ram it down our throats, it loses all of its meaning and power.

The trap was great, but the resolution was terrible. We are really supposed to believe that the Doctor knew exactly what he was doing all the way? And, unfortunately, the concept of the Dalek graveyard, populated by vaguely sentient Daleks, beneath Skaro was stupid in the first place, and then you find out it was really only created there to be the deus ex machina. Not to mention, didn't we just have an episode in which all of the dead individuals of a species come back to life? Oh wait, no, maybe this was calling back to the piles of discarded Flesh. (I suppose Dalek-Clara brings up "Asylum of the Daleks" - this whole episode is just one big mashup of old ideas.)

Unfortunately, one of the main breaks in the episode for me was the scene where the Doctor is talking to Dalek-Clara, and he stops because, apparently, a Dalek shouldn't be begging for mercy. Of course, we've already seen a Dalek beg for mercy, in "The Big Bang".

RIVER: I'm River Song. Check your records again.
DALEK: Mercy.
RIVER: Say it again.
DALEK: Mercy!
RIVER: One more time.
DALEK: Mercy!

Yes, the Doctor wasn't there, but it does not ring true that the Doctor, the man who knows the Daleks best, would say such a thing when he's seen plenty of Daleks act in unusual ways, many of them during Moffat's tenure. Don't they have continuity people checking this stuff? It really breaks the story when they can't keep their own history straight.

So, bottom line, it was good for a while, broken at the end, okay on average.

Comments

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

It was a teleporter (malfuntioning) that he got off of one of the androids chasing him. He needed a charge. He took a device that was of the same frequency/energy that the androids used and used it to get away. Missy was just explaining how she used the same principal.

I think Moffat likes to play with 'time'. Before him, the Daleks had no concept of Mercy (unless they were an emperor - and only to mock with), but whereas the alternate time-line, they had that concept (and it might not have surprised Eleven at the time), Twelve has no knowledge of that. Remember, Eleven never heard them ask for mercy. WE did, but he never did. To Twelve, the concept may be foreign, but for Eleven (whose timelines change according to the future, not the past), this would be a given...because he had always known them to understand that concept.

I'm explaining this rather badly.

It is a time-concept my husband and I like to bandy about, so I see what Moffat did there. Also? My kiddos are six and nine. If I ever get confused, I can ask them, lol!!

Personally, I loved the parallels within the parallels. The enemy who is a friend. The friend who is an enemy. The two bad guys telling truths, even as they come up with new tricks. The insight into the Daleks and how they function and behave. How they are trapped by what they CANNOT say, even should they wish to. The way things we saw a season or two ago can be explained currently.

As for continuity...I have a 'Discontinuity Guide' from the Classic series. It was printed in the middle of the Sixth Doctor's Era, I believe. And it shows how the whole show is RIDDLED with discontinuity, even within one doctor's timelines. In the end, they put it down to 'it's a show about time travel' and left it at that. Or (as Ten would say) wibbley-wobbley-timey-wimey. LOL!!

*HUGS*

[cynthia2015.livejournal.com]

At least there was a reason for the dalek's repetitive "exterminate". I wasn't expecting that. I don't know how I feel about the Doctor pulling Davros out of his chair. Yes it was fun seeing the Doctor riding it like some dodgem car, but it was like picking on a person with a physical handicap. Although Davros did get back at him by manipulating the Doctor psychologically, even if he failed at it in the end. Even if the Doctor still refers to the Master as his friend, he knows he can't trust Missy so that's why he hesitated with the dalek who we all knew was Clara. The Master's always been jealous of the Doctor's affection for "earth girls". Jenna's been in a dalek in some way or another three times now.

[alumfelga.livejournal.com]

What would they need continuity people for? The Doctor lies, time can be rewritten and the Silence were there. *eyeroll* It worries me that S. Moffat remembers stuff from the very first episodes yet forgets his own writing from a season ago.

I liked the mirror-finish serving tray ;) but I agree, too much is being said loud and directly. Nothing has been worse than "The Beast Below" (he's last of his kind and he's good x100) but it's always better to let the viewers notice the parallels and jump to their own conclusions.